Bar-shaped closure with operating travel moving away from the door leaf

ABSTRACT

A bar-type closure for a door is provided. An actuating device is disposed on the outer surface of the door leaf and is rotatable between an opened and a closed position, with the rotational movement of the actuating device being convertible to longitudinal displacement of at least one locking rod that is guided parallel to the pivot axis of the door on the inner side of the door leaf thereof. The actuating device is provided with a hand lever that is pivotable outwardly about a hinge line axis oriented parallel to the pivot axis of the door and to the direction of displacement of the locking rod. The enlargement of the spacing between the hand lever and the door leaf, when the hand lever pivots, is converted into displacement of the locking rod into its release position by means of a Z-shaped drive lever that is disposed between the door leaf and the hand lever. One end of the drive lever is non-displaceably mounted in a first journal on an inner surface of the hand lever that faces the door leaf. The other end is mounted in a second journal that is displaceable relative to the door leaf. The second journal is coupled with the locking rod by means of an articulation that extends through the door leaf.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The invention concerns a bar-shaped closure, especially for sheet metallocker doors, comprising an actuating device on the external surface ofthe door leaf and rotatable between an open position and a closedposition, wherein the rotational movement of the actuating device via amechanism can be converted to longitudinal displacement of at least onelocking rod on the internal side of the door leaf parallel to the dooredge.

EP 0 261 267 B1 describes a bar-shaped closure with the aforesaidfeatures. In the known bar-shaped closure the actuating deviceconstituting, e.g., a handle, can be moved in a plane parallel to theplane of the door leaf so that the actuating device passes through thedoor leaf with an actuating shaft. The mechanism for converting themovement of the actuating device to a longitudinal displacement of atleast one locking rod comprises a pinion that is borne rotatable in acorresponding lock case and that is driven by the rotatable actuatingshaft, and the exterior teeth of the pinion engage in a correspondingrecess of the locking rod. If a pivoted lever is provided for theactuating device in the known bar-shaped closure, the pivoted lever isarranged such that in its rest position it drops into a base plate andcan be locked therein.

The known bar-shaped closure, especially in regard to the embodiment ofthe actuating device as a pivoted lever, suffers from the disadvantagethat two different motions are required to release or lock the rod. Onceunlocked, first the pivoted lever must be opened out of the base plate,for which purpose a spring support is generally attached, and then thepivoted lever must be moved parallel to the plane of the door leaf as arod drive. In addition, the lock case required for the mechanism forreceiving the pinion and the rod driven thereby must necessarilycomprise a plurality of components and therefore must be pre-assembled,which is a complex and expensive undertaking. Finally, a special step isrequired for holding and attaching the lock case when the rod-shapedclosure is installed on a door leaf.

The object of the invention is therefore to fabricate a bar-shapedclosure with the generic features that comprises fewer individual parts,and in particular furthermore to simplify its assembly and use.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This object is achieved using the contents of the claims, includingadvantageous embodiments and further developments, subsequent to thisspecification.

The main idea for the invention is that the actuating device has a handlever capable of pivoting by being pulled outward relative to the doorleaf about a hinge line axis that is parallel to the door edge, and thata first bearing designed for one end of a Z-shaped drive lever islocated fixed on the hand lever inner surface oriented towards the doorleaf and the other end of the Z-drive lever is located in a secondbearing capable of sliding relative to the door leaf, wherein the secondbearing is coupled with the locking rod by means of an articulationpassing through the door leaf. The idea for the invention thus is basedon the principle of simplifying the mechanism so that the pivotingmotion of the hand lever away from the plane of the door leaf, which inthe prior art consists merely of opening out the lever from the baseplate, is immediately converted to the longitudinal displacement of thelocking rod. The mechanism required for this comprises the Z-drivelever, which when the hand lever is in its resting position is insertedat the distance required between the hand lever and door leaf. Since thedrive lever at its one end is mounted on the hand lever in the fixedfirst bearing formed there, moving the hand lever away from the doorleaf plane and thus increasing the distance bridged by the drive levernecessarily leads to a linear relative motion of the second bearingarranged on the door leaf side for the other end of the Z-drive lever.This linear relative movement of the second bearing is immediatelyconverted to the linear displacement of the locking bar.

Thus the construction of the rod-shaped closure is advantageouslysimplified since the arrangement of a complex lock case is no longernecessary and furthermore the recesses in the locking rod are also nolonger necessary. The actuating device can be pre-assembled with thedrive lever arranged thereon so that only one pre-assembled componenthas to be attached to the door leaf. Finally, handling of the rod-shapedclosure is simplified because the hand lever merely has to be pulledaway from the door leaf plane or pressed against the door leaf in orderto effect the unlocking and locking motion of the associated lockingbar.

In accordance with a first exemplary embodiment of the invention it isprovided that the second bearing of the drive lever is connected to alink that on the door leaf side is capable of pivoting around an axisand that at its one end has the axis and at its other end has thearticulation for the locking rod, wherein the second bearing of theZ-drive lever is arranged with a lever arm effective to the axis at thelink. Thus in this embodiment the linear displacement of the secondbearing of the drive lever is converted to a pivoting motion of the linkfixed on one side, the length of which is such that the articulation atits other end describes an essentially linear path. The displacementtravel for the locking bar coupled to the link can be established byselecting the distance between the second bearing and the axis for thelink, with the operating travel of the hand lever remaining the same.

Alternatively it can be provided that the second bearing of the Z-drivelever is arranged on a slide means that on the door leaf side linearlyis slidable in the shift direction of the locking rod to be the carrierof the articulation for the locking bar.

Since the drive lever is displaced laterally when the hand lever ispivoted, and not just tilted in its longitudinal axis when the handlever is pivoted, in accordance with one exemplary embodiment of theinvention it is provided that the first bearing and the second bearinghave a cap-shaped cup for receiving bearing spheres located at each ofthe ends of the Z-drive lever. This embodiment of the first and secondbearings as sphere bearings ensures the necessary degree of freedom ofmovement for the drive lever.

In accordance with one exemplary embodiment of the invention, theactuating device is embodied as a box-shaped component that is arrangedon the external surface of the door leaf and the front surface of whichfaces away from the door leaf and can be pivoted away as the hand leverand the back wall of which is adjacent to the door leaf and is embodiedas the carrier for the slidable second bearing for the Z-drive leverarranged between the hand lever and the back wall. The advantage of thisembodiment is that the box-shaped component is pre-assembled as a unitso that this box-shaped component is attached to the door leaf as aunit. In this instance the door leaf merely needs to have the slot forpassing through the pin acting as the articulation, wherein the lockingrod can be attached directly to this pin.

Finally, in an arrangement of two opposing slidable locking rods it canbe provided that two drive levers are arranged and each locking rod iscoupled to one of the drive levers that are offset 180° relative to eachother.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

An exemplary embodiment of the invention is shown in the drawing, whichis described in the following.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a bar-shaped closure to be mounted on adoor leaf;

FIG. 2a is a top view of the hand lever with attached mechanism withlocked bar-shaped closure in its closed position;

FIG. 2b is the subject of FIG. 2a with the hand lever in the openposition;

FIG. 3 is a side elevation of the subject of FIGS. 2a and 2 b with thehand lever in the closed and open positions;

FIG. 4 is a front elevation of the link belonging to the mechanism witha bearing for the drive lever and rod articulation.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

To be mounted on a door plate or leaf 10 as the main component of thebar-shaped closure is a box-shaped component 11, the back wall 12 ofwhich is adjacent to the door leaf 10 and the front wall of which isembodied as a hand lever 13. The hand lever 13 is borne on the one sidecapable of pivoting away from the door leaf 10 on a hinge line axis 16that is embodied parallel to the door leaf 10, wherein the narrow sideof the component 11 opposing the hinge line axis 16 has a recessed grip14 for gripping the hand lever 13. The hand lever 13 is lockable in amanner known per se by means of a lock 15 in the box-shaped component 11so that the lock 15 must be unlocked prior to actuating the hand lever13.

As can be seen in detail in FIGS. 2a, 2 b, and 3, the back wall 12 andhand lever 13 of the box-shaped component 11 are provided mutuallyengaging pins 17 to limit the travel of the hand lever 13 when it ispulled out.

An essentially Z-shaped drive or transfer lever 18 is arranged in thespace between the back wall 12 and the hand lever 13, wherein its firstend 19 is fixed in a fixed first journal or bearing 22 on the interiorside of the hand lever 13, while its second end 20 is held in a secondjournal or bearing 24 in a manner that will be described. Both ends 19,20 of the drive lever 18 have bearing spheres 21 that are held in theassociated cap-shaped cups 23 of the first bearing 22 and of the secondbearing 24.

As can be seen in FIG. 4, the second bearing 24 is arranged on a link 25borne on the back wall 12 of the box-shaped component 11 and capable ofpivoting around a fixed axis 26, wherein the axis 26 is located at theone end of the link 25 while the other, opposing end of the link 25 hasa pin 27 serving as articulation for a locking rod 30 guided on theinterior side of the door leaf 10; the pin passes through the back wall12 of the box-shaped component 11 in an associated slot 28 andfurthermore passes through the door leaf 10 in a slot, not shown. Thelocking rod 30 is fixed at the end of the pin 27 projecting over theinterior side of the door leaf 10.

As can be seen particularly in FIG. 3, in which are shown both theclosed position of the hand lever 13 in accordance with FIG. 2a and theopen position of the hand lever 13 in accordance with FIG. 2b, pullingthe hand lever 13 away from the door leaf 10 and the back wall 12 of thebox-shaped component leads to enlarging the distance bridged by thedrive lever 18 so that, given a fixed first bearing 22 for the first end19 of the drive lever 18, a movement of the second bearing 24 relativeto the back wall 12 and door leaf 10 necessarily results. As can be seenwhen FIGS. 3 and 4 are studied together, this relative movement leads tothe link 25 moving around its fixed axis 26, wherein the other end ofthe link 25 uses the pin 27 to displace the rod 30. The operating travelof the hand lever 13 when it is pulled away from the door leaf 10 andthe rod travel of the locking rod 30 for the required locking andunlocking movement can be determined and/or changed by appropriateselection of the distance between the axis 26 of the link 25 and thesecond bearing 24 arranged on the link 25.

If the hand lever 13 is pressed back against the door leaf 10 or backwall 12 of the box-shaped component 11, the drive lever performscorresponding reverse travel so that the locking rod is returned to itslocking position.

The features of the subject of this document that are disclosed in theforegoing description, in the claims, abstract, and drawings can beessential to the realization of the invention in its variousembodiments, either singly or in any desired combination.

The specification incorporates by reference the disclosure of Germanpriority documents DE 197 42 545.3 of Sep. 26, 1997 and German PatentApplication priority document PCT/DE98/02881 of Sep. 23, 1998.

The present invention is, of course, in no way restricted to thespecific disclosure of the specification and drawings, but alsoencompasses any modifications within the scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A bar-type closure for a door having a door leaf,comprising: an actuating device disposed on an outer surface of saiddoor leaf and rotatable between an open position and a closed position,wherein rotational movement of said actuating device is convertible tolongitudinal displacement of at least one locking rod that is guidedparallel to a pivot axis of said door on an inner side of said door leafbetween a locking position and a release position wherein said actuatingdevice is provided with a hand lever that is pivotable away from saidouter surface of said door leaf about a hinge line axis thereof that isoriented parallel to said pivot axis of said door and to a direction ofdisplacement of said at least one locking rod, wherein an increase ofspacing between said hand lever and said door leaf that results withpivoting movement of said hand lever is converted into displacement ofsaid at least one locking rod into said release position thereof bymeans of a Z-shaped drive lever that is disposed between said door leafand hand lever, wherein one end of said Z-shaped drive lever isnon-displaceably mounted in a first journal that is disposed on an innersurface of said hand lever that faces said door leaf, wherein a secondend of said Z-shaped drive lever is mounted in a second journal that isdisplaceably disposed relative to said door leaf, and wherein saidsecond journal is coupled to said at least one locking rod by means ofan articulation that extends through said door leaf.
 2. A bar-typeclosure according to claim 1 wherein said second journal of saidZ-shaped drive lever is connect to a link that is pivotably disposedabout a pivot axis relative to said door leaf, wherein said link isprovided on one end with said pivot axis and on another end with saidarticulation for said at least one locking rod, and wherein said secondjournal is disposed on said link in such a way as to form a lever armthat is effective relative to said pivot axis.
 3. A bar-type closureaccording to claim 1, wherein said second journal of said Z-drive leveris disposed on a slide means that relative to door leaf is linearlydisplaceable in a direction of displacement of said at least one lockingrod and wherein said slide means forms a support for said articulationfor said at least one locking rod.
 4. A bar-type closure according toclaim 1, wherein said first and second journals each have a cap-shapedcup for receiving respective bearing spheres disposed at each of saidends of said Z-shaped drive lever.
 5. A bar-type closure according toclaim 1, wherein said actuating device is embodied as a box-shapedcomponent that is disposed on said outer surface of said door leaf,wherein a front surface of said box-shaped component that faces awayfrom said door leaf can be pivoted away as said hand lever, and whereina rear wall of said box-shaped component that rests against said doorleaf is embodied as a support for said displaceable second journal forsaid Z-shaped drive lever, which is disposed between said hand lever andsaid rear wall.
 6. A bar-type closure according to claim 1, wherein saidarticulation for said at least one locking rod comprises a pin thatextends inwardly through a slot in said door leaf and wherein said atleast one locking rod is connected to said pin.
 7. A bar-type closureaccording to claim 1, wherein two oppositely displaceable locking rodsare provided wherein two drive levers are provided, and wherein each ofsaid locking rods is coupled to one of said drive levers, which areoffset 180° relative to one another.